Al Pearce
" "
Al Pearce had
always been a performer, but his
guitar and songs had been strictly a hobby until the mid 1920's, when
his real estate business suddenly failed. A KFRC executive saw he and
his brother Cal performing a vaudeville sketch at a real estate
convention, and they were immediately hired. Their program on KFRC,
"The Happy Go Lucky Hour", debuted in 1929 and was an immediate hit on
the Don Lee Network. Pearce's most popular on-air comedy
character was Elmer Blurp, a bashful door-to-door salesman (see photo).
His knock on the door was always followed by "Nobody's to
home,
I hope I hope I hope". It became a national catch-phrase, and
Pearce played on the radio for twenty years.